College in Three Years? States Are Giving It a Try.

For generations, earning a bachelor’s degree has meant spending four years in college and paying for four years of tuition and housing. But as those costs continue to rise (exponentially), states across the country are questioning whether students really need all four. I mean, students do lose a whole year to general education and electives they’ll never think about again.

A new study from the RAND Corporation identified 119 reduced-credit bachelor’s programs publicly announced across the country by May 2026, up from just five in 2024. That’s a huge difference, and I have to assume that rising tuition is at the forefront of that decision. States including Tennessee and Texas are now taking steps to make three-year degrees more widely available, testing whether a bachelor’s degree really needs to take a long four years.

North Carolina is joining that experiment, with the UNC System exploring three-year, 90-credit degrees. What gets left out when a four-year degree is compressed into three?

In July, the Tennessee Higher Education Commission approved a policy allowing colleges to develop focused bachelor’s degrees with as few as 90 credit hours. Lincoln Memorial University became the first university in the state to offer one, launching a 90-credit Bachelor of Science in Education this fall. The program cuts 32 credits from the university’s previous 122-credit degree while still meeting Tennessee’s teacher-licensure requirements.

Texas, meanwhile, is doing what Texas rarely gets credit for: moving carefully. In August, Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to develop pathways for students to earn bachelor’s degrees in three years. A working group will consider student demand, employer needs and institutional requirements before submitting recommendations by the end of the year.RAND defines reduced-credit bachelor’s degrees as programs requiring roughly 90 to 115 semester credits, compared with the traditional 120-credit bachelor’s degree, and the financial appeal comes down to time: because these programs can be completed in roughly three academic years, students could spend less time paying for college and reach the workforce sooner. 

Europe skipped this whole debate decades ago. Most countries there have offered three-year bachelor’s degrees since the late 1990s, built around a more focused, career-specific course load. RAND notes that concerns about college affordability, student debt and the time it takes to earn a degree have helped drive renewed interest in the model. Big shocker. 

According to RAND, most reduced-credit programs keep the core courses required for a major while trimming electives and other curricular flexibility—which is really where the trade-off lies. That may make sense for career-focused fields such as business, information technology and cybersecurity, which are among the most common areas for these programs. But fewer electives leave less room for students to explore subjects outside their major, take additional courses, or change direction along the way. Goodbye, Introduction to Hula Hooping.

These programs are still new, so it’s not yet clear how employers view them or how graduates will fare. RAND found limited evidence on how reduced-credit bachelor’s degrees will be treated by graduate and professional schools, employers and licensing boards. In a survey of graduate and professional admissions leaders in Ohio, researchers found uncertainty about whether a 90-credit bachelor’s degree would be viewed the same way as a traditional 120-credit degree. Students pursuing advanced degrees or careers with specific educational requirements may therefore have another consideration before choosing the shorter route.

North Carolina is now deciding how a similar model could work in its public universities, and eleven campuses have already submitted proposals. The UNC System Board of Governors approved a pilot program in April that could allow three-year bachelor’s degrees to launch as early as fall 2027. 

Proposals cover a wide range of fields, from business and economics to cybersecurity, nursing and live entertainment production. Many are designed with working adults, transfer students and other nontraditional students in mind, and proposals must demonstrate a clear workforce need. Whatever gets you a job, basically.

At NC State, for example, one proposed business management degree would save students an estimated $15,000 while allowing them to enter the workforce one to two years earlier. That’s a lot of money for a young adult looking to enter the workforce and build up their savings. It’s also a chance for North Carolina to see whether cutting credits can preserve the substance of a college education. 

The four-year degree has been the default for so long that cutting a year can sound almost radical. But finishing faster isn’t really the test. Finishing with an education that still leaves room to think, explore and prepare for what comes next is.

Reagan Allen is the North Carolina reporter for the James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal.